Pickup Sticks
by Feuilly
Summary: When you travel across time, things will definitely change, and no one knows that more than Enjolras and Grantaire. Just how much can things change though? Years later, a gypsy decides that one of them is too harsh, and shows them just how things really started, but is it enough to change it to how it should be?
1. 2011 - New Orleans

**A/N: This is a plot bunny from my last story, ****_The Leader_****, basically a different story, but the same idea. It's AU, and an attempt at some almost canon G/E. Also, since it will be mentioned, prohibition didn't happen in Canada, but Quebec banned alcohol for a bit in 1919. The public quickly changed that. Rating is for teenage guys being teenage guys, and talking like it. Also for a couple slang terms that some might find offensive.**

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"Get out of here Fagot!"

The shout made almost everyone in the hall freeze. Most people turned just in time to see a tall blond run away from a brunette.

Not too many people got a good look at the blond's face as he ran past, tears streaming down his face. Those that did, however, had their mouths open in shock.

Eric was not the type of person to put himself out there, quietly determined, he sat in the back of most classes, taking meticulous notes, and adding his own knowledge to them. He was very attractive, in a light almost ethereal way that made most girls swoon. He had a couple of good friends, but he was not gay.

But what did they really know? Most of the students that you would have asked wouldn't have been able to tell you his last name.

The brunette who had shouted, a Dominic Grant, was fighting back tears himself. He was angry, he was confused, and goddamn it, he felt violated. He had been in Eric's gym class a couple of years ago, he had changed in front of him. But more than that, he had considered Eric a friend, a good one, and that was gone now.

Slamming his locker shut, he left the school, and walked into the hot weather of the New Orleans June. School was almost done for the year, and the summer was out with a vengeance. He felt his shirt start to stick to him, and groped in his backpack for his water bottle, wishing strongly that it was another bottle instead. Eric had convinced him that his drinking was going to stop him from being one of the great artists of the world. He didn't know how, but the blond, as per usual, had looked so sure of himself when he had said it, that Dominic didn't question it.

He walked past the bench that he and Eric had first talked about their plans. Dominic was going to go to Paris, and he was going to become an designer. Eric was going to stay in the states and try to fix it. Dominic used to tease him, saying he was going to take over the world.

Goddamn it! Not everything in his life had to deal with Eric, right?

Taking a sudden turn, he strode into an ally, and opened the bleak door that greeted him.

"Good afternoon Jules. Care to give a kid a drink?"

Jules was an old wrinkled woman who gave drinks and other things, to the kids who could talk sweet enough.

"Cory was in here earlier," Came the raspy voice, "What did you do to his friend?"

_That was fast._

Dominic slumped in his seat, "Better ask what he did to me."

"Despite what you may think right now, Eric was only repaying a favor."

"Ha." The laugh was forced and mirthless.

"You don't believe me."

"No." He paused, "Actually, I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You came to me years ago, said you wanted to make a deal, you wanted him to love you, similar to how you loved him. It's a lot less physical than you think, you know."

"No, I don't know, and if you're going to talk like that, I'm leaving."

"You can't get drinks anywhere else, and you're too much of a alcoholic to stop."

"I'm seventeen, give me a break." Dominic sighed. "But your right. Get me a drink and I'll listen to whatever you want to tell me."

Jules set a glass down in front of him, and he didn't wait long before he took a sip. Well, more a gulp. Immediately, everything in the room started to dim, and his head started to _pound_.

"Jesus Jules, what the hell did you give me?" His words were slurred, and he wasn't even sure if someone could make out the end of his sentence. It didn't matter though, because a second later, he couldn't think at all.


	2. 1977 - Somewhere Towards Winnipeg

Dominic woke up what felt like seconds later, his eyes opened to view a dingy bar, he saw Jules, looking a little younger, give him a drink and wink. He tried to open his mouth to say something, but his hand moved to take the glass instead. He couldn't control his body, and for a terrifying moment, he thought that someone else was in control of him. When the shot went down his throat though, he should have felt the burn. Instead, he felt nothing. It was more terrifying when he realized he was trapped. He focused on something else, trying to stop the fear from taking over. Hey, he knew this song. His parents listened to it all the time. Why was it playing here? He looked around, and knew this wasn't his time. The clothes were wrong, no one was texting, and the cars outside the window looked wrong.

The body he was in continued to order more drinks every twenty minutes or so, until a pale hand grabbed his wrist.

He followed the hand up to it's owner, and was shocked to see Eric's face. Not quite Eric's face though, the eyes were slightly narrower, and hair a little bit lighter and longer, but he was recognizable.

"Damian, what are you doing? I told you, this has to stop if you want to do anything." The blond turned to Jules, "Stop serving him if he comes in, and call me. I gave my number to you forever ago, I want you to use it."

Jules gave a wicked grin, "Sure thing Aaron."

"I love you man." Dominic heard the words slip out of his mouth, and he felt horror settle in his stomach.

"How much have you had to drink?" Eric/Aaron asked, looking at him with a mix of concern and disgust. "Damian we talked about this, you can't... Actually, it's no use talking to you like this, you wont remember in the morning. You're staying at my house tonight."

As Eric/Aaron dragged Dominic/Damian out to a car, Dominic saw every girl in the place shooting him jealous looks.

_No matter how strange some things are, some things always stay the same_, he thought.

Once they were both settled in the car, Aaron gave him a travel mug of coffee, and he again had the terrifying feeling of drinking something, but not taking it in.

"Look, I'm not going to start the car until I get this off my chest." Aaron said, turning to face Damian with a sigh, "I know that you have... Feelings for me. You know I don't return them, so why do you do this to yourself. You could be a great friend, and a great help. To be honest though, when you're like this, I hate you."

Aaron started to drive, Damian started to cry, and Dominic recoiled from both the words and the feelings.

"It's not that I don't think you're a great guy, but you have to choose to either be my friend, or the friend of the glass. I don't know what I could do without you, but like this, you're too much of a liability. With you rambling, someone could get the wrong idea about what we're doing, and I would hate that. But I've been doing this for five years, and I'm not sure if I can do it anymore."

"But I love you. I can't be without you." Dominic felt an unfamiliar tongue shape the words in his mouth, and he sounded like a kicked puppy.

"Right now you're useless." The words came out harsh.

Damian cried harder.

Aaron pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Not like that. You're drunk, you aren't thinking strait. We'll talk more in the morning, now quiet so I can drive."

When they got to an apartment building, and Aaron dragged Damian up some stairs and into a small and cluttered apartment. Feeling Aaron that close to him Dominic couldn't deny his heart speeding up. It only stopped when Aaron pushed him onto a couch. Without much of a second look, he muttered, "I'm making bacon tomorrow for this."

Dominic felt his eyes close and the world stop.


	3. 1919 - Quebec City

Dominic had barely opened his eyes before a pale hand grabbed his arm.

"You know I hate being in places like this, David! It's bad taste, besides the dry spell wont last long. Just hang on, alright?"

This version of Eric seemed, more delicate compared to the two Dominic had knew. He looked really slight, and almost sickly. His eyes were almost spheres, and were a kittenish blue, not the fierce colour that he was used to. It was still the same person though.

"Are you that far gone already? It's me, Edward." Edward looked at the bartender, who - as far as Dominic could tell - was still Jules, and gave her a withering glare. She winked at him again.

"I'm alrigh'. Jus' give meh a few momen's." He was barely comprehensible.

"God, they're going to be in here in a few moments." The hand was there, tugging at his arm again. He wished that his heart didn't beat that much faster.

"Who?" Was what his mouth spit out.

"The cops. We know that they can't ban alcohol for long, but you know that it's still illegal right now."

"Half of 'em drink 'ere anyway."

"Not in uniform." This time his body allowed himself to get pulled away from the counter, and towards the door.

It took them about twenty minutes until they reached another apartment building, where Edward pulled him up a couple flights of stairs.

When he was sure that Edward couldn't take anymore of his weight, David walked more or less by himself to a room, where Edward unlocked the door.

This apartment only had one room. More importantly, it only had one bed. Dominic felt the heat rise in David's face. David was apparently used to it though, because he slumped straight towards the bed, before dropping onto it.

"Are you alrigh'?" David asked.

"I was five minutes ahead of the cops, no, that was too close." Edward spit.

"You look off tho', like, you're sick or somthin'."

"I'm fine."

"No, you haven' been since the alcohol ban was put in place." He was apparently more sober now, the cold walk had done him well.

"Not that I care for it, I'm just angry that they're repressing rights. People have those for a reason."

"An' you haven't been sleeping because of it?"

There was a tense smile in Edwards face.

"No, I haven't." The smile was gone. "Now go to sleep, hopefully when you wake up tomorrow you'll see how ridiculous this entire alcohol thing is."

The world slipped away.

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**A/N: I spent a long time debate on putting something between this chapter and the one previous. I still might, if you guys think it's a good idea, because it was quite a jump through time. None of the other jumps will be this big though. **


	4. 1901 – New York

"Hey D, what are you doing?"

Dominic opened his eyes, was he back at home? But no one had called him that in a long time. It was a nickname from his childhood. He felt all of his seventeen years, thank you very much. Eric was there again. If he had been in control of his body he would have been ashamed to look at this version of Eric. When they were twelve and first met, it was because of Dominic protecting Eric in a school fight. It hadn't been to protect him really, he'd just wanted to get in on the fight. It was the the first time he'd felt guilty about lying, actually. He'd come out of the fight with a couple of bruises and scratches, but Eric had been beat on long before Dominic had even gotten there. He'd had a broken arm, and a nasty black eye. It had been hard to look at before, but this was worse. This was a grown Eric, who had a clearly broken arm, and a black eye. He was trying not to cry out in pain.

He could see some forms moving away, Jules looked back and gave him a wink before running off.

This Eric hissed in pain before continuing, "You were supposed to be on the lookout. What happened?"

"They got me too." the body said, "I couldn't help it. I'm really sorry E."

"What happened?"

"Took me from behind." Dominic knew there wasn't something right about his voice. And he knew his own voice well enough. He was lying.

He felt a headache start to form as he searched for what had happened. This body, he had been off buying something. A drug maybe? Or some sort of drink. The people he had been buying from had really been... Who?

He digs a little deeper, ignoring the searing pain in his head.

They had been the ones that he was supposed to be looking out for.

He had failed this. Just like he had failed Edward. Just like he had failed Aaron. And just like he had failed Eric. No! It had been Eric's fault. He hadn't done anything to the other guy, Eric had just gone and betrayed their friendship. It wasn't his fault! But this – this was much worse.

He was jogged back to his current situation by a strangled half scream. E had tried to get up, and put some pressure on his arm.

"Well, James and Colin should be here soon." E grimaces and his words become more spaced out, more painful. "Just be more aware next time, OK?"

This time it was E who fell unconscious. His arm was limp, and laying at the wrong angle. He could almost see the bone poking out of it if he looked close enough.

Dominic clenched his hands. Angry with his past self. Why had he lied? E would probably forgive him, because that's what he did. He-

He stop. He had clenched his hands. He raised an arm experimentally, and felt a massive grin on his face.

The grin slid when he noticed E on the ground again.

"Jules, Take me back. This isn't what I'm supposed to do. I shouldn't be here. I understand your message. I wont be such a dick when I get back, I promise."

_Not good enough Dominic. Try harder._

Before he can think of a response, the world dissolves around him.


	5. 1890 - Somewhere in the ocean

**A/N: This is the chapter I'm questioning the most. The use of present tense is because supposedly children's thoughts are so much more all consuming. I'm still not sure if I like that idea or not. But enjoy anyways.**

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There is so much blue around. Daren tries really hard to ignore it, because he's never been much good at swimming. His mama used to tell him about when she had gone swimming when she was younger. He liked those stories, but the idea of not being able to touch the ground while still being able to move. That was frightening as well as wonderful.

The boat was too crowded though. His mama was near by, his father was already there. In America. It sounded like a wondrous place, but he knew to be wary of things. Like the people with sly grins that would brush against you. They would take things. His friend Jules had told him.

But then he sees it. A little blond boy giving him a grin. That seems like as much as in invitation to play as anything. He's always been told to be asked to do something before doing it. He wanders over to his mama and tells her that he's going to find the little blond boy.

Dominic recoils, the thoughts too familiar, just like when he was 9. Too much going around in one mind. Currents of thought going from one direction to the next in seconds. It's too easy to get caught up in the raw emotions. But there is no mistaking the little blond boy. Eric. Eric is going to get hurt again. And it will be his fault.

He's accepted it now. And he shook his head to clear it. That isn't now. That was long ago. He should stop thinking like that before it becomes a problem. It's just easier to get attached to children. He tried to detach himself. He failed. He just gets caught up in the thoughts of the little boy exploring the boat. In search of a new friend.

Too many people. One brushed up against him. They're so tall. Too tall. Pressing from all sides. He blinks back tears, trying to figure out if he can get away.

"Bonjour." There is a soft voice to his right, he looks and sees the blond boy, the boy grabs his wrist and pulls him over to the side of the boat, easily winding their small frames through the crowd.

_No! Not yet!_

His head _hurts_.

_There are too many people in here, _Dominic realizes. _How many people can be in one head anyways?_

Judging from the pain that reverberates through his skull, not as many as are in here right now.

The other voice is back though, babbling in a half mad way, _Not yet! I'm still too young! You promised I'd get more time. Why now? The Revolution will happen soon, I can't fail him this early!_

Only now does he realize that the blond child isn't standing with him at the side of the boat. He leans over the edge, to see a blond head bobbing on the surface of the water.

He cries himself horse, calling for help.

_I can't do it anymore. I can't watch._


End file.
